Profiles

Scott Bunge

Associate Professor

B.S. The College of William and Mary (VA), 1997
Ph.D. Georgia Institute of Technology, 2001

Our research group intends to make a strong contribution to the fields of inorganic chemistry, nanoscale science and technology, and materials science. With this aim, standard Schlenk and glovebox techniques are employed to synthesize a variety of low-coordinate air and moisture sensitive inorganic precursors. Characterization methods include multinuclear NMR, X-ray crystallography, FT-IR and UV/VIS spectroscopy, TGA/DTA, SEM, TEM and X-ray powder diffraction.

These investigations, while rooted in traditional aspects of chemistry, will often involve students in collaborations with an array of other scientists and engineers. Group members will have their own projects; however, each group member's research will have significant overlap with others in the group. As such, the students' depth of fundamental chemical principles will become augmented by exposure to a breadth of additional concepts. It is anticipated that such a combination of skills results in a fertile and created environment for achievement of research goals. Therefore, students should frequently expand beyond the reaches of classical chemistry subjects, and embrace additional areas, as required, for the successful execution of a specific project.

One component of our research is further elaborated on in the following paragraph. For more information see the selected publications below.

The Design of Metal-Organic Complexes Utilizing a Synergistic Approach

In a number of metalloproteins hydrogen bonding (5 to 15 kcal/mol) is used in conjunction with metal-ligand covalent bonds to control activity within biomolecules. A current research challenge in synthetic inorganic chemistry is the incorporation of these types of interactions into well-defined metal compounds with the intention of developing enhanced catalytic and stoichiometric reactivity. Conversely, difficulties arise in synthetic systems because their structures are often flexible, so H-bonds form with various other species present, such as solvent molecules or counterions. These intermolecular hydrogen bonds are often unawnted and interfere with the desired function. Therefore, as in metalloproteins, synthetic complexes must have a combination of ligands placed within rigid frameworks located near the metal center(s) to ensure stable complex formation. Our research group utilizes a combination of novel set of ligands in conjunction with a vast array of metals throughout the Periodic Table to produce well designed multi-functional inorganic/organic hybrid systems. Students working in this area frequently expand beyond the reaches of classical chemistry subjects and embrace additional areas, as required, for the successful execution of a specific project. Standard Schlenk and glovebox techniques are employed to synthesize a variety of low-coordinate air and moisture sensitive inorganic complexes.

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